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Arthsenhaal Blain
Arthsenhaal Blain, known to dwarves (and, later, most of his close friends) as "Ingiof" (lit. "one who conquers"), was the king of New Asgarnia, living in Falador from age 43 until his death almost thirty years later. Fervently loved by his subjects and hated by his enemies, he was the first in at least a hundred years to attempt unification of the borders of the Asgarnian Kingdom, which had, in the times of his father and grandfather, knelt to the iniquities of crime and of division. A devout Saradominist, he was said to have a penchant for making friends out of enemies, including the Kinshra who terrorized his reign for many years before being placated. However, following the drafting of the Four Corners Treaty, King Kire's Varrock had unified nearly the entire eastern continent to take him down, and succeeded with little resistance. The name "Blain" has since come to stand as a synonym for "pox" or "sore,"[1] and the man himself has been demonized in most historical texts emerging from the reigns of Emperor Malcolm, King Kire, and others. Background A common saying, at least among the once-humble House Blain, is that they were "always climbing." Sir Ceogwa was the first Blain man of true nobility, having been knighted in the capital for valiant service in a great war with Varrock, when the two fought for control over the lands between their borders (known now as Edgeville, with an eponymous capital). Ceogwa dedicated nearly his whole life thenceforth to the protection of the realm, leaving his wife and children on their baron's estate on the southern border of Falador. All his sons found inspiration in knighthood, and the privileges it brought to the otherwise common family. By the time old age had taken the knight, his eldest son, Renhaal, had been squired and knighted, and wished to serve the same house. However, a lord of Sarim, a smaller, independent country emerging from the apathy of Falador's crown, had recently passed without heirs, leaving the low nobility to squabble over the rights of the land, crops, and serfs. Through no lack of cunning, Renhaal made his ascent to true lordhood, owning a large manor and impressive yields as a count of Sarim. His charge was within the plot of Asgarnia known now as Duchy Hwelgar. Early Life Renhaal's first wife, married to House Blain mainly for political reasons, died in childbirth, and her child with her. Though the man did find another, a Miss Gwerion, she was of common stock, which would have brought shame to the nobility. So she was well-fed and well-dressed, and taught everything she would need to know to pass as the daughter of a more important man. Bearing her first and only child, Arthsenhaal, was the final act which ascended her to the place of her husband's finest affections. Young Arthsenhaal, though not a prodigy by any means, learned the ways of the house with great speed and dexterity. Reading, writing, and swordplay came naturally; he quickly dropped the flute and the lyre, but he demonstrated great skill with maps and his chosen weapon of war, the voulge. When the lad was not learning such trades from his father and even his mother, he was out beyond the bailey, overturning stones and angering the serfs with his pokings-around. When the regents of House Blain had finally grown too old to lead properly, Arthsenhaal took his place at the head of the manor, leaving his parents to retire to the west. They lived out the rest of their days in the country of Rimmington, which was known and would come eventually to be known again as Duchy Findensern. Politics and the Dream : "Every rebellion begins in the heart of but a single man. Without such heretics walking among us, we all would surely have perished long ago beneath the hobnail and the wrathful sword." :: —An excerpt from Arthsenhaal's diary, detailing these days of his life. Arthsenhaal found that he was well-suited for life in the courts, being always well-dressed and having received several court-dwarves as gifts from impressed hosts. However, he felt disgust toward the people with whom he worked, believing many to be much too petty, more concerned over their reputation than their duties as leaders and citizens. By this time foreign affairs fascinated the lad, especially those of Varrock, and the empire of Asgarnia which once stood, in his eyes, "unrivaled in strength and in beauty." It was through these studies that he began to take interest in House Lorith (Queen Evelyn and her only son and prince, Kire), as well as House Fish (King Arthur of Falador). As little seemed to be done about brigands and goblins on the roads across Hwelgar, count Arthsenhaal quickly began to suspect that rust lied beneath the gilded surface of the crown. That the southern duchies had divided into distinct countries of their own (the Archduchies of Rimmington and Sarim, named after the largest towns therein) several years ago was the first clue the lord followed; and when he learned, at long last, that Arthur Fish was actually a puppet-king to the rival state of Varrock, so outraged was Arthsenhaal that he vowed to clean up the mess—singlehandedly if need be—or die trying. As he would go on to explain, since this king answered to another, neither king was eager to uphold his reponsibilities to the country, each believing these responsibilities belonged to the other. Traveling from his fief to the town of Sarim, eponymous capital of the country, Arthsenhaal knew that he would never conscript enough peasants, nor arm them well enough, to sack the city, which was a viable option in his angry mind. Instead he sought the aid of those he considered "properly desperate": mercenaries who could not find work, pirates who could not find unarmed ships, and any other man who sought a life of glory. His goal was a small bay nearby, by the name of Janholt, which was much too shallow to let well-armed navy ships pass, yet allowed those of ill repute, with smaller ships, to come and go freely. Sand barges and other obstacles prevented the powerful navies of Asgarnia from ever launching a successful blockade upon this area, and the lord knew he would find suitably "needy" people here. The first man of these was a young one, about 20 years old (nearly two decades less than Arthsenhal), by the name of Roran Seercal. He was a wizard learning ice magic at the Wizards' Tower, having come to Sarim to visit the grave of his father, the man who had sent him to the Tower in the first place. The man had died during Roran's strict apprenticeship, leaving him no time to attend the funeral or burial until nearly two years had passed. Distraught over that conflict of schedule, Roran saw the potential in Arthsenhaal's mission: to separate himself from his unfinished education yet also put it to good use. (Roran's mother, who lived in The Lum, might never have accepted her son back home without the diploma he had promised his father he would get.) As Roran had made the first step into building Arthsenhaal's army, and a circle of his most trusted friends, the lord promised that Roran would receive Blain County as his reward; since Arthsenhaal would either die in his quest or move into the castle, being much too proud to stumble short of either, he had no more use for the land. The next men to join the crusade upon Falador's throne were Marcus Maligni and Marth Olmmor, two pirates from the area. Marcus, a dark-skinned man native to Sarim, with a large gut and tiny angry eyes, was much like a father to Marth, who was younger and had the fairer flesh of north-men. Roran was sent on many diplomatic journeys with these pirates during the first days of the mission; and, stylizing themselves "We His Three," they would go on to become great friends to each other and to their leader. The Black Supper Roran, Marcus and Marth received their first mission once all three had been sworn into the lord's service, stooping to one knee and taking his oath. To the wizard's dismay they were being sent to Lumbridge, to talk not to local lords or mercenaries, but to the king himself, David Purgoo of Lum. After spending some weeks in travel, using a crossbow, favors from village elders along the way, and simple creativity, They His Three arrived upon the castle with a signed, sealed letter printed upon vellum and addressed to the king himself. As they soon learned, Arthsenhaal had meanwhile been continuing to augment his army, though the letter stated he would be arriving soon after his messengers, dressed in the same drab cloak he was wearing when he found Roran. With his hair and fineries hidden well behind this cloak, and his beard scraped free of all its wax, he arrived in the city incognito, looking like any other merchant who had not seen much success of late. The lord's retinue were not allowed to attend the meeting between the count and the king, but they were briefed afterward on their roles in the plan. King David had won his own throne by conquest many years prior, following a brief rebellion (Lum, belonging to King Blakan, against David's fief of Draynor) and he, once being Blakan's confidant and squire, had easily surprised the man and managed to overwhelm the capital by siege. Arthsenhaal's most important reason for visiting him, however, was the suspicion that Varrock's situation was much like Falador's: the king did not care enough about the old fiefs, and let them sit scattered and weak. Under Arthsenhaal's proposal, if Prince Kire were to be assassinated, leaving Evelyn without a blood-heir, House Blain could rise to kingliness in the west while Arthur Fish could be moved onto the throne of Varrock. Agreeing, King David set about preparing with Arthsenhaal. The Plan After some argument as to how Kire should be killed, it was agreed that he would be poisoned with a chocolate cake, a rare dessert from the isle of Karamja. As both lords were certain the young man would be unable to resist the delicacy, which was especially rare in the north (far from any coasts), they immediately arranged for a barrel of cocoa beans to be delivered to the castle. Meanwhile the nearby fiefs were asked to, on a certain date, begin collecting calves and pigs for slaughter, pluck grapes for pressing, and forage for berries, nuts and roots from the forests, all to embellish the table of the king's feast in return for compensation. While the pirates were dressed up in hose and other fineries to act as Arthsenhaal's housecarls, Roran would be allowed to enter the hall itself during the feast, adding ice to guests' goblets. A boy who called himself "Silver," another character Arthsenhaal had found while They His Three were traveling east, was adept with air magic and quite capable of casting illusions; he was relegated to standing in the courtyard, prepared to create a diversion any time it might have been needed. Meanwhile the lords oversaw preparation of the cake, and the bottle of poison was hidden well in the cellar of the castle. The guest list specified that a person would Lorith blood should attend the feast, as David was unwilling to negotiate with any king who would hide behind his lords when the time came to reason. Besides minor Lum lords (including Errin Golgwir, later Queen Errin of Falador), the guest list also included scapegoats: Drake Varkan and William von Tristan, lord and lord-regent of Draynor following David's rebellion, who threatened to do the very same to David as revenge for Blakan's fate. The feast, being portrayed as one intended to unite King David with his recalcitrant lord, and strengthen the bond between Lum and Varrock, was eagerly attended. The Event Immediately the plan lost all chances of being entirely successful. While the caravans of minor Lum lords had arrived in good time, the retinue for House Lorith was noticeably late. When it did finally arrive, it was not Kire or even Evelyn, but a new figure in the family, a young girl named Princess Morgana, who attended. This, coming as a shock to Arthsenhaal and to David, forced them to reconsider whether they would even present the cake toward the end of the evening. At first the princess had saved the evening by her presence. However, once she let slip (being a rather young, slipshod girl not yet acquainted with hard politics) that she was half-elf in blood, the plan was allowed to commence. The implications of Evelyn's affair with an elven lord would have been so tremendous that nearly anyone at the table, if he knew the secret, could have planned the assassination. The girl was the first and only person to bite from the cake. She died mere minutes later, leaving the frenzied table to point fingers and accusations amongst themselves. Arthsenhaal and David, as planned, blamed the rebels; while William von Tristan escaped with his life, Drake was put on trail and swiftly executed for two flavors of treason. Although most of Gielinor would later call this event "The Black Supper," Arthsenhaal referred to it merely as "The Feast," and it lost no gravity among those who had attended and who had heard of its ruthlessness. Aftermath King David received political heat regarding the incident for a very short time. As Arthsenhaal predicted, most people assumed the king would never be so bold as to think he could poison a delegate in his own castle and get away with it. The official story was accepted with little backlash. While Arthsenhaal and Silver had a quick falling-out following the Feast, with the boy leaving to fend for himself to the north, They His Three accompanied their lord back to his manor, where mercenaries were waiting in addition to his ordinary housecarls. It was a small yet well-armed force, just what Arthsenhaal needed to win the throne through politics rather than force. Following the death of the Varrockian princess, her lineage became humiliatingly public. Queen Evelyn, utterly disgraced, was forced to abdicate the throne, leaving it to her (fully human, yet tragically half-brained) son, King Kire Lorith. Ascension With Varrock in disarray, adjusting to the reign of a ruler much too young and unlearned compared to his mother, the time to win the throne was upon the small force. Travelling north with his housecarls and mercenaries, Arthsenhaal earned easy audience with King Arthur once the man learned that the count had attended the Black Supper. Eager to be free of another king's control, Arthur readily agreed to help Arthsenhaal as well, and they put their agreement to paper, so well-guarded that it has still not been found by archaeologists, explorers or historians to this day. Meanwhile they also set about drafting another paper. Declaration of Independence The king and count sent their written threat to Varrock by falcon, yet only the upcoming king signed it. As their plan required a good amount of political tact and surprise, Arthur was reluctant to associate himself with the written movement. The final text sits in Varrock's museum of history, and reads as follows: : For too long the fair maiden Gielinor has resided in a pitiable state of iniquity. It has slowly crept up, embracing all its neighbors until they are naught but worthless husks resembling their former selves only in tangible form. : The city of Falador has been forced to watch futilely as this rot spreads from its origins to commandeer every land upon which it arrives. Incessantly Varrock's colonies increase in size and quantity, mimicking the writhing tendrils of a sea-beast grasping at the waters for it foul sustenance. It has become necessary for the daughter to overthrow her abusive mother, throwing aside the golden chains of oppression while standing upon her own foundations. Like the mighty leviathan fleeing from the lowly sickleback, the mother city shall, when too nearly approaching her daughter, be caused to recoil in utter despair. : As of the date on which this stationary is received, Falador is to be esteemed as an entity entirely separate from the ironclad fist of Varrock. She has been oppressed by her parent nation, and will consequently offer no shelter to any Varrockian so long as the bloodline rules. We, the lords of the former colony of Varrock, therefore, hereby proclaim that Falador's security, and that of the territories of former Asgarnia, shall no longer condone the tyranny with which they are ruled by their neighbor. This right to property and intellect shall be defended with the lives of the patriots. : Signed, Arthsenhaal Blain, the rightful King of Falador and the New Asgarnia Of interesting note is use of the word "we" in the text, despite the distinct lack of any signature from House Fish. Though the castle never received a direct retort from Varrock, it moved quickly as not to lose its chance at true freedom. The young king, with little to no experience in leading, did not foresee that his colony's most fervent leaders had no intention of being threatened into submission. Only when Faladian troops began to besiege Varrockian outposts in the country of Edgeville, and the fortresses of loyal lords from the Asgarnian area, did King Kire finally write back, admitting defeat and asking to negotiate in person. Arthsenhaal, coronated at 43 years old, Category:Roleplayer